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Dave Barry Does Japan
The best-selling author of Dave Barry Talks Back provides a look at the follies and quirks of the Japanese--and Americans--in a collection of observations on sumo wrestling, sushi, geisha girls, and more. 150,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo. Tour.
210 pages, Hardcover
First published January 28, 1992
67 people are currently reading
838 people want to read
About the author
Dave Barry
152 books2,237 followersDave Barry is a humor writer. For 25 years he was a syndicated columnist whose work appeared in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad. In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Many people are still trying to figure out how this happened.
Dave has also written many books, virtually none of which contain useful information. Two of his books were used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom "Dave's World," in which Harry Anderson played a much taller version of Dave.
Dave plays lead guitar in a literary rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose other members include Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson and Mitch Albom. They are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud. Dave has also made many TV appearances, including one on the David Letterman show where he proved that it is possible to set fire to a pair of men's underpants with a Barbie doll.
In his spare time, Dave is a candidate for president of the United States. If elected, his highest priority will be to seek the death penalty for whoever is responsible for making Americans install low-flow toilets.
Dave lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Michelle, a sportswriter. He has a son, Rob, and a daughter, Sophie, neither of whom thinks he's funny.
Dave has also written many books, virtually none of which contain useful information. Two of his books were used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom "Dave's World," in which Harry Anderson played a much taller version of Dave.
Dave plays lead guitar in a literary rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose other members include Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson and Mitch Albom. They are not musically skilled, but they are extremely loud. Dave has also made many TV appearances, including one on the David Letterman show where he proved that it is possible to set fire to a pair of men's underpants with a Barbie doll.
In his spare time, Dave is a candidate for president of the United States. If elected, his highest priority will be to seek the death penalty for whoever is responsible for making Americans install low-flow toilets.
Dave lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Michelle, a sportswriter. He has a son, Rob, and a daughter, Sophie, neither of whom thinks he's funny.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 301 reviews
August 2, 2019
His writing about the food in Japan made me decide that I might not want to travel there for the cuisine! :) I passed my copy of this book to a friend who lived/worked in Japan for a couple of years. She absolutely related to it!
January 15, 2011
Back when I was in middle school, I remember thinking that Dave Barry was a pretty funny writer. I haven't read him in quite some time, but in my mind liken him to Bill Bryson. So, when I saw he had a book about his travels to Japan, I thought it would be a perfect fit for my armchair travel goals for the year. Looking at the cover alone, however, should have tipped me off as to what I was in store for. To be fair, this book was written in 1992, which must have been a very different time in the world. Barry and his family take a three week trip to Japan and he writes all about it - in the most offensive, ignorant, sterotypically rude self-centered white American way possible. Needless to say, I did not find a line of this book funny. I have been to Japan, and I will admit that I too found that there are some weird things about it - but for the most part, Japan is a highly efficient, incredibly beautiful country with amazingly delicious food and sophisticated technology. Barry seemed to have no appreciation whatsoever for any of it. He just thought it was all gross and strange and seemed to revel in his closed-minded approach to their culture. I think I have a decent sense of humor. Perhaps it's just changed since I was 12, and Dave Barry just simply isn't funny to me anymore.
May 30, 2019
My husband is Japanese. Born and raised his entire life there until he came to the USA for college. When we got married I didn't want to throw this book away but I also didn't want him to find it and possibly be offended by it. However, I came home one evening and he was reading it and laughing very, very hard. I can't think of a better endorsement!
Note: I often read Dave Berry's column growing up as a teenager (I was on the school paper and was curious about that fact that he could write in his off-the-wall style and be published and paid for it) and always appreciated how hard I could make my parents laugh by repeating/monologuing some of his ideas. He can be a bit crass at times and so there were parts in the columns that I would sometimes skip over (and that's true for this book too). I wish he wouldn't digress in that way at times but the funny parts are hilarious!
Note: I often read Dave Berry's column growing up as a teenager (I was on the school paper and was curious about that fact that he could write in his off-the-wall style and be published and paid for it) and always appreciated how hard I could make my parents laugh by repeating/monologuing some of his ideas. He can be a bit crass at times and so there were parts in the columns that I would sometimes skip over (and that's true for this book too). I wish he wouldn't digress in that way at times but the funny parts are hilarious!
April 4, 2024
Very funny, classic Dave Barry. Everything he noted about Japan was really dead-on, which is what makes it the funniest. Japan is a wonderful place, and also very, very different...
The funniest thing for me is that I've had all of these experiences when visiting Japan. I've been to Japanese baths and stayed at traditional country inns, I've eaten all kinds of weird food (including blowfish, which is poisonous if not prepared just so), I've travelled all over by subway and train, been to lots of shrines, watched what passes for variety shows on Japanese TV, been stared at for being foreign and had total strangers ask to take pictures with me, and been the recipient of excellent service without any tipping. At least I CAN eat with chopsticks, and I really relish at least a few of the unique foods, like o-mochi, gogo-no-kocha, and shabu-shabu. It's a wonderful place to visit if you're willing to just relax and try lots of new things. I've made some wonderful friendships there also. But I have to admit that my first few visits felt very much like the experiences portrayed in the movie "Lost in Translation".
The funniest thing for me is that I've had all of these experiences when visiting Japan. I've been to Japanese baths and stayed at traditional country inns, I've eaten all kinds of weird food (including blowfish, which is poisonous if not prepared just so), I've travelled all over by subway and train, been to lots of shrines, watched what passes for variety shows on Japanese TV, been stared at for being foreign and had total strangers ask to take pictures with me, and been the recipient of excellent service without any tipping. At least I CAN eat with chopsticks, and I really relish at least a few of the unique foods, like o-mochi, gogo-no-kocha, and shabu-shabu. It's a wonderful place to visit if you're willing to just relax and try lots of new things. I've made some wonderful friendships there also. But I have to admit that my first few visits felt very much like the experiences portrayed in the movie "Lost in Translation".
October 13, 2020
I finished reading another book that left me with a serious book hangover I did not want because it would make me nonfunctional, so I had to read something else quickly, and this is what I chose. I'm a fan of Dave Barry's humor, and this book, in which he and his family visit Japan for purposes of writing a humorous book about Japan, always makes me giggle. Whether it's his wife's purchases of plastic food, discourses on beer out of vending machines, or an afternoon at the baseball stadium (complete with regimented cheering sections and authorized chatter), I love Barry's amused but loving take on our Asian friends and their lifestyle.
November 4, 2018
Sarcasm plus exaggeration. Nobody does it better than Dave Barry.
October 10, 2010
This book is Dave Barry's hilarious account of his trip to Japan. He runs into so many cultural things that any foreigner runs into. He repeatedly accounts that he doesn't really know anything about Japanese culture/language, but he shares his experiences - from sqatty potties (according to Dave, "a hole in the ground where they forgot to put the toilet) to food to places.
Having lived in Japan for just over a year now I found the book hilarious. I did listen to it in the car on audio book. I really appreciated the audio author, but found his miss pronunciation of major Japanese words (including cities, Kyoto and Hiroshima) really annoying. Don't study pronunciation of Japanese city names from the audio book and you'll be alright.
Regardless, Dave had me in tears a few times because I was laughing so hard as I, too, had experienced exactly what he was talking about. The book is quite ethnocentric to the US and is likely a bit out of date about American relations to Japan and some unknowns about Japan. Regardless, it's one I'd love to own so I could share it with friends and family.
Having lived in Japan for just over a year now I found the book hilarious. I did listen to it in the car on audio book. I really appreciated the audio author, but found his miss pronunciation of major Japanese words (including cities, Kyoto and Hiroshima) really annoying. Don't study pronunciation of Japanese city names from the audio book and you'll be alright.
Regardless, Dave had me in tears a few times because I was laughing so hard as I, too, had experienced exactly what he was talking about. The book is quite ethnocentric to the US and is likely a bit out of date about American relations to Japan and some unknowns about Japan. Regardless, it's one I'd love to own so I could share it with friends and family.
May 23, 2016
As a native Japanese, I recommend this book who has a plan to travel to Japan and who has an experience to spend some time in Japan. Of course there are many deformed as his way of describing, items/issues really exist, include the nightingale’s leftover.
September 29, 2008
In September of 2008, I went to Hiroshima with The Boyfriend. I knew it would be a more serious place to visit than a lot of the other places I've been to in Japan, for obvious reasons, and as I thought about it, I remembered this book. You see, while Dave Barry is enormously funny, and I always have a hard time holding in my laughter when he writes, he also knows exactly when to turn off the funny and talk seriously about a topic. Such was the case with this book, and the chapter on visiting Hiroshima.
But I'll get to that later. Let me start by saying that yes, this is a very funny book, as so many of his books are. I can only imagine, though, how funny it is to someone who's never been to Japan, much less lived there. I'll bet that, while reading some of the more ridiculous examples of how different Japan is from the US, a lot of readers were thinking, "No, it can't be that weird. He must be exaggerating for comic effect."
No, no he's not. Not in the least. Well, some, yes, because that's his job, but all of the things that he points out as being "strange" about Japan - the ubiquitous vending machines, rockabillies dancing very seriously in a circle, kids practicing their English with strangers, plastic food shops, all of it is absolutely true. He is not, in fact, making this up.
He says at the beginning of the book, "So this book is not authoritative. If you want authoritative, go buy a real book." At no point does he claim to be an expert on Japan, or that spending three weeks here would make him one. In fact, the main aspect he plays on is his eternal cluelessness. As he points out, Japan is like one big, very exclusive club into which you must be born if you want to become a member. There are rules that no outsider can ever really learn, much less on a three week whirlwind tour. There are people who try - there are a lot of foreign-born residents in this country who do their best to live according to the rules, but no matter how hard we try, we'll never really become members of Club Japan. So, Barry just decides to do his best and try not to make himself look completely stupid.
He marginally succeeds, which is good - otherwise there would be no book.
With his family, Barry goes from Tokyo to Kyoto to Kyushu and back again, stopping to see temples and shrines, sumo, ceremonies, kabuki, rakugo and car factories, among other things. Through it all, they do their best to adapt to the strangeness of Japanese life and Japanese food, and he comes out with some wonderful stories that had me cackling on the bus ride down to Hiroshima.
Which I believe I mentioned before.
It's an interesting chapter in the book. The chapter itself is flanked by two grey pages - a signal to the reader that this is a no-funny zone. There will be no jokes between these pages, and rightfully so. Barry and his family went there on the anniversary of the bombing, August 6th, and observed the Peace Ceremony. They looked at the statues and the monuments and the dome, and went to the museum, and came out with an enormous sense of... conflict.
There is no question in anyone's mind that what happened in Hiroshima - and Nagasaki - was horrific. All you have to do is read the testimonials, look at the photos and the drawings in the museum, look at the charred and burned school uniforms, pieces of flesh on display, dioramas of the flattened city and you know that the nuclear bomb is nothing that you can really joke about. Hundreds of thousands of people died because of those bombs, and not all of them died right away. Soldiers, yes -Hiroshima has a history as a miltary city - but babies, students, innocent men and women also perished in fire, blast, trauma and, of course, the long, lingering death of radiation sickness.
No city deserves that. Ever.
At the same time, Barry feels that the bombing is presented without context, and he's not the only one to think so. From what he could see, it looks like America just decided to do this horrible thing, and there's not sufficient explanation to visitors as to why this was done. What would make a supposedly civilized nation do such a patently evil thing to so many people?
It's very hard to justify what was done. I know the arguments - that Japan was training civilians to defend the home islands to the death, that millions more might have died in a long, drawn-out battle, that the Soviets were ready to swoop in and take over - but all those justifications kind of sound hollow when you see the photographs of people with fifth-degree burns, and read about the thousands of children who were orphaned in a fraction of a second. To those leaders, however, at that time, the dropping of those bombs was a necessary option, and I don't think even they knew how bad the effects would be.
Regardless, the bombs were not dropped capriciously. They were dropped following a long chain of events, decisions and ambitions that reached back decades. And I think I agree with Barry that more attention should be paid not only to the aftermath of the bombing, but also to what led up to it. Maybe just because I don't want my country to look like a monster.
Anyway, the Hiroshima chapter aside, it really is a very funny book. Even funnier if you've ever been to or lived in Japan. It's not the kind of book you buy if you're actually interested in learning about Japan, but if you want some good laughs, go for it.
-------------------------------------
"Compared with the Japanese, the average American displays in communication all the subtlety of Harpo hitting Zeppo with a dead chicken."
-Dave Barry
-------------------------------------
But I'll get to that later. Let me start by saying that yes, this is a very funny book, as so many of his books are. I can only imagine, though, how funny it is to someone who's never been to Japan, much less lived there. I'll bet that, while reading some of the more ridiculous examples of how different Japan is from the US, a lot of readers were thinking, "No, it can't be that weird. He must be exaggerating for comic effect."
No, no he's not. Not in the least. Well, some, yes, because that's his job, but all of the things that he points out as being "strange" about Japan - the ubiquitous vending machines, rockabillies dancing very seriously in a circle, kids practicing their English with strangers, plastic food shops, all of it is absolutely true. He is not, in fact, making this up.
He says at the beginning of the book, "So this book is not authoritative. If you want authoritative, go buy a real book." At no point does he claim to be an expert on Japan, or that spending three weeks here would make him one. In fact, the main aspect he plays on is his eternal cluelessness. As he points out, Japan is like one big, very exclusive club into which you must be born if you want to become a member. There are rules that no outsider can ever really learn, much less on a three week whirlwind tour. There are people who try - there are a lot of foreign-born residents in this country who do their best to live according to the rules, but no matter how hard we try, we'll never really become members of Club Japan. So, Barry just decides to do his best and try not to make himself look completely stupid.
He marginally succeeds, which is good - otherwise there would be no book.
With his family, Barry goes from Tokyo to Kyoto to Kyushu and back again, stopping to see temples and shrines, sumo, ceremonies, kabuki, rakugo and car factories, among other things. Through it all, they do their best to adapt to the strangeness of Japanese life and Japanese food, and he comes out with some wonderful stories that had me cackling on the bus ride down to Hiroshima.
Which I believe I mentioned before.
It's an interesting chapter in the book. The chapter itself is flanked by two grey pages - a signal to the reader that this is a no-funny zone. There will be no jokes between these pages, and rightfully so. Barry and his family went there on the anniversary of the bombing, August 6th, and observed the Peace Ceremony. They looked at the statues and the monuments and the dome, and went to the museum, and came out with an enormous sense of... conflict.
There is no question in anyone's mind that what happened in Hiroshima - and Nagasaki - was horrific. All you have to do is read the testimonials, look at the photos and the drawings in the museum, look at the charred and burned school uniforms, pieces of flesh on display, dioramas of the flattened city and you know that the nuclear bomb is nothing that you can really joke about. Hundreds of thousands of people died because of those bombs, and not all of them died right away. Soldiers, yes -Hiroshima has a history as a miltary city - but babies, students, innocent men and women also perished in fire, blast, trauma and, of course, the long, lingering death of radiation sickness.
No city deserves that. Ever.
At the same time, Barry feels that the bombing is presented without context, and he's not the only one to think so. From what he could see, it looks like America just decided to do this horrible thing, and there's not sufficient explanation to visitors as to why this was done. What would make a supposedly civilized nation do such a patently evil thing to so many people?
It's very hard to justify what was done. I know the arguments - that Japan was training civilians to defend the home islands to the death, that millions more might have died in a long, drawn-out battle, that the Soviets were ready to swoop in and take over - but all those justifications kind of sound hollow when you see the photographs of people with fifth-degree burns, and read about the thousands of children who were orphaned in a fraction of a second. To those leaders, however, at that time, the dropping of those bombs was a necessary option, and I don't think even they knew how bad the effects would be.
Regardless, the bombs were not dropped capriciously. They were dropped following a long chain of events, decisions and ambitions that reached back decades. And I think I agree with Barry that more attention should be paid not only to the aftermath of the bombing, but also to what led up to it. Maybe just because I don't want my country to look like a monster.
Anyway, the Hiroshima chapter aside, it really is a very funny book. Even funnier if you've ever been to or lived in Japan. It's not the kind of book you buy if you're actually interested in learning about Japan, but if you want some good laughs, go for it.
-------------------------------------
"Compared with the Japanese, the average American displays in communication all the subtlety of Harpo hitting Zeppo with a dead chicken."
-Dave Barry
-------------------------------------
June 19, 2022
There are few laugh out loud hoots and a lot of ridiculousness. In this silly recap of Dave Barry's trip to Japan. Its a quick read that will tickle all manner of travelers.Dave went to see Mount Fuji in thick
Cloud cover and only saw the ground he stood on. Bathrooms, baths, personal service, food ,directions all were points of great confusion.it made me (fondly remember) my own travel hiccups. I went whale watching in Hawaii only to see a tail fluke sinking beneath the water. Only one in 3 hours! I have been lost, reluctant to eat somethings. Traveled along the California coastline (so the map said)in rain and fog never seeing the Pacific. Yet had fun all the same. Books like these make for smiles.
Cloud cover and only saw the ground he stood on. Bathrooms, baths, personal service, food ,directions all were points of great confusion.it made me (fondly remember) my own travel hiccups. I went whale watching in Hawaii only to see a tail fluke sinking beneath the water. Only one in 3 hours! I have been lost, reluctant to eat somethings. Traveled along the California coastline (so the map said)in rain and fog never seeing the Pacific. Yet had fun all the same. Books like these make for smiles.
January 28, 2010
I like to read this one about once a year. It's a real hoot. And I love anything Japan. Sometimes my husband and I read it out loud to each other when we're feeling particularly corny and we crack up.
August 13, 2016
I have never read Dave Barry prior to this. Somewhat dated now, but I laughed and laughed and laughed.
December 16, 2018
My experience is the same as the first listed review for this book - grew up LOVING Dave Barry but this book wasn’t very funny, it was mostly obnoxious. He traveled around a country without once trying anything that wasn’t a chicken nugget, spent his whole time giggling at those wacky Japanese and then reassured the reader that hey, don’t worry, they’re actually humans too! Christ, I know 1992 was a different time, but that’s pretty pathetic. He portrays himself as the American Tourist From Hell - which, to be fair, was probably his target audience. I gave two stars for the hilarious sections about the American economy and auto industry, which helped me remember that as long as Dave Barry has his eye trained on his own culture, he can be incisive and laugh-out-loud hilarious. But boy should he stick to what he knows.
July 16, 2018
This book came out in 1992, so it's a bit dated, but there's still some funny stuff and, because it's Dave Barry, there's a lot of not really funny silly stuff. I did laugh out loud at some things, I'll admit, and the chapter on "Rock Music in Japan: Hep Cats Getting Funky in Unison" was truly wonderful. (Full disclosure: I lived in Japan for sixteen and a half years and Dave nailed this one.) The best chapter, "Hiroshima," concerning the Barry family's visit to that city on August 5, the anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb, was a sharply observed critique of how the event is remembered. There was certainly nothing funny about that, but Barry's insight shows that he is much more than a humorist.
December 31, 2012
I liked this book better than the last Dave Barry book that I read because it told a complete story and wasn't just a random collection of his columns. Yes, it was still a collection of anecdotes from his trip to Japan with his wife and son, but it felt more complete and the stories fell in a context that stitched them all together. He is, as always, amusing and has a way of stating things in that perfect Regular Joe manner that made him famous. Not gut busting and at times the jokes were predictable, but entertaining nonetheless.
April 9, 2013
Oh my god! Not since the posters warned of "yellow peril" during the second world war has anything so racist been passed publicly and widely as if it were comedy! I had always liked Barry's columns and books, and picked this up w/o even thinking. One of my children is half Japanese, and I am so glad she didn't see this crap.
Dave? Time to recognize some issues and hopefully deal with them better than this. If not, don't air them anymore than you would with anti-Black or anti-Jewish literature.
It took me a lot of years to want to read his work after this!
Dave? Time to recognize some issues and hopefully deal with them better than this. If not, don't air them anymore than you would with anti-Black or anti-Jewish literature.
It took me a lot of years to want to read his work after this!
October 24, 2020
Funny, but I don’t think it was quite as funny as it could have been. Dave Barry has a way with words and his footnotes were enough to have my eyes watering. But there were many parts of this book that were really outdated, and there were a few parts that just seemed either slow, or unnecessary (why devote an entire chapter to a serious discussion about Hiroshima, in the middle of an otherwise funny book?) so I couldn’t give it the five stars.
Still an enjoyable read and from a very funny author.
Still an enjoyable read and from a very funny author.
November 16, 2020
Dave Barry je humorista, kterého u nás svého času vydával Talpress, ale rychle s tím zase přestal. Je to ten typ knihy, kde vtipy nejsou doplněk k příběhu, ale fungují spíš jen jako příloha k jiným vtipům, což je celé okořeněno hláškami. Z jedné strany používá Dave Barry poměrně jednoduchou a průhlednou strukturu – na druhou ji ale dokáže dobře naplňovat a vybírat ta správná spojení, aby se člověk přinejmenším pousmál.
„Japonštinu jsem se pokoušel naučit pomocí knihy jménem Japonsky snadno - v letadle ze San Francisca do Tokia. To není zrovna metoda, kterou by doporučovali experti. Metoda, kterou doporučují experti. je narodit se jako japonské mimino a být vychováván japonskými rodiči, v Japonsku.“
Obvykle si bere nějaké téma a předstírá, že teď už bude vážný a řekne nějaké moudro – aby čtenáři vzápětí podtrhl koberec pod nohama. Tady to ale tak úplně neplatí. Popisuje tu svou skutečnou cestu do Japonska, takže tady nějaké fakta být musí. Ale rozhodně nepřestává všechno kolem sebe využívat k chrlení vtipů, takže bych se tuhle kniha asi bál půjčit nějakému fanouškovi Japonska. Nebo Japonci.
„Jedna hodina sledování divadla Kabuki je ekvivalentní k sedmnácti hodinám stráveným nějakou zábavnější činností, kupříkladu operací oka.“
Témata jsou tu obvyklá – střet s Japonskem, podniky, sporty, hudba, ubytování… a samozřejmě humor. Tam se pustil do popisu jednoho stand-upového… tedy spíš sit-downového vystoupení, žánru „rakugo“. Na to už jsem narazil v jedné počítačové hře a už tam mi to přijde divný. Představte si, že jdete na vystoupení, kde vám někdo říká anekdotu. Jednu. Ta anekdota trvá asi půl hodiny… a je to anekdota, kterou říkají i všichni ostatní komici, je tak sto let stará, takže znáte pointu a všechny peripetie. Podstatné je ovšem podání a dikce, s jakou se ta anekdota pronáší.
Jediná kapitola, kdy autor trochu zvážní, je při návštěvě Hirošimy a muzea, které pojímá tragédii způsobem „tak jsme si tak seděli a hleděli si svého, a najednou na nás Američané z nějakého neznámého důvodu hodili bombu.“
Kniha pochází z roku 1992, takže jo, na dnešní dobu by to asi nestačilo. Dneska už by tam muselo být víc zásadnějších informací, nějaké poselství či aspoň nějaké prozření vypravěče. Což tady fakt není. Navíc dnešní doba je už o dost citlivější… v podstatě na všechno… takže by možná by neprošlo dělat si legraci z jiného národa, jen proto, že je divný. Ale Japonci prostě divný jsou. A založili si na tom kariéru.
„Japonštinu jsem se pokoušel naučit pomocí knihy jménem Japonsky snadno - v letadle ze San Francisca do Tokia. To není zrovna metoda, kterou by doporučovali experti. Metoda, kterou doporučují experti. je narodit se jako japonské mimino a být vychováván japonskými rodiči, v Japonsku.“
Obvykle si bere nějaké téma a předstírá, že teď už bude vážný a řekne nějaké moudro – aby čtenáři vzápětí podtrhl koberec pod nohama. Tady to ale tak úplně neplatí. Popisuje tu svou skutečnou cestu do Japonska, takže tady nějaké fakta být musí. Ale rozhodně nepřestává všechno kolem sebe využívat k chrlení vtipů, takže bych se tuhle kniha asi bál půjčit nějakému fanouškovi Japonska. Nebo Japonci.
„Jedna hodina sledování divadla Kabuki je ekvivalentní k sedmnácti hodinám stráveným nějakou zábavnější činností, kupříkladu operací oka.“
Témata jsou tu obvyklá – střet s Japonskem, podniky, sporty, hudba, ubytování… a samozřejmě humor. Tam se pustil do popisu jednoho stand-upového… tedy spíš sit-downového vystoupení, žánru „rakugo“. Na to už jsem narazil v jedné počítačové hře a už tam mi to přijde divný. Představte si, že jdete na vystoupení, kde vám někdo říká anekdotu. Jednu. Ta anekdota trvá asi půl hodiny… a je to anekdota, kterou říkají i všichni ostatní komici, je tak sto let stará, takže znáte pointu a všechny peripetie. Podstatné je ovšem podání a dikce, s jakou se ta anekdota pronáší.
Jediná kapitola, kdy autor trochu zvážní, je při návštěvě Hirošimy a muzea, které pojímá tragédii způsobem „tak jsme si tak seděli a hleděli si svého, a najednou na nás Američané z nějakého neznámého důvodu hodili bombu.“
Kniha pochází z roku 1992, takže jo, na dnešní dobu by to asi nestačilo. Dneska už by tam muselo být víc zásadnějších informací, nějaké poselství či aspoň nějaké prozření vypravěče. Což tady fakt není. Navíc dnešní doba je už o dost citlivější… v podstatě na všechno… takže by možná by neprošlo dělat si legraci z jiného národa, jen proto, že je divný. Ale Japonci prostě divný jsou. A založili si na tom kariéru.
August 13, 2013
Japan isn't our enemy. That notion is racist and stupid. Japan had nothing to do with creating our monster national debt, or wrecking our cities, or dumbing down our schools, or making so many of us hate and fear each other. We don't need any outside threats to mess up this country; we're doing fine on our own.
I'd never read a Dave Barry book before, and the few times I had read one of his weekly syndicated columns in The Oregonian, I wasn't blown over by his wit enough to keep reading. However, this book made its way into my bag during the Milwaukie Ledding Library's book sale (on the final day, an entire bag of books is one low price) so I gave it a shot. I've been to Japan—it would be interesting to compare notes with a nationally syndicated comedy writer.
Where this book really impressed me was when Barry took a serious turn. For example, the chapter on Hiroshima finds him taking a yearly memorial event much more seriously than the culture who suffered it. He reflects and in my mind, that's more interesting than his descriptions when he attends kabuki or other activities he interprets more comically.
However, there were some jokes that landed with me—just not all of them, as he was portraying himself as a big, ignorant American, going for laughs that would land with more of his audience. Comedy is about putting incongruous things together—while Barry was playing up the big, ignorant American in Japan angle, I tended to appreciate the jokes that reflected my own experience in Japan. Mentioning pachinko and Pocari Sweat cinched it for me.
At any rate, the book was a quick summer read. I'm not sure I'd seek Dave Barry's books out again, but if one ended up in my library book sale bag next year I wouldn't mind, either.
I'd never read a Dave Barry book before, and the few times I had read one of his weekly syndicated columns in The Oregonian, I wasn't blown over by his wit enough to keep reading. However, this book made its way into my bag during the Milwaukie Ledding Library's book sale (on the final day, an entire bag of books is one low price) so I gave it a shot. I've been to Japan—it would be interesting to compare notes with a nationally syndicated comedy writer.
Where this book really impressed me was when Barry took a serious turn. For example, the chapter on Hiroshima finds him taking a yearly memorial event much more seriously than the culture who suffered it. He reflects and in my mind, that's more interesting than his descriptions when he attends kabuki or other activities he interprets more comically.
However, there were some jokes that landed with me—just not all of them, as he was portraying himself as a big, ignorant American, going for laughs that would land with more of his audience. Comedy is about putting incongruous things together—while Barry was playing up the big, ignorant American in Japan angle, I tended to appreciate the jokes that reflected my own experience in Japan. Mentioning pachinko and Pocari Sweat cinched it for me.
At any rate, the book was a quick summer read. I'm not sure I'd seek Dave Barry's books out again, but if one ended up in my library book sale bag next year I wouldn't mind, either.
June 14, 2017
I long ago learned to appreciate Dave Barry's sense of humor. As with much good humor writing, he often starts with a kernel of truth, and then exaggerates it to the point of satire, often with hilarious results. I still quote from his book on home ownership, where he recommends that those planning to move should just pile all their belongings in the yard and set them on fire. :)
Here, Barry brings his offbeat way of seeing the world to Japan, and he provides us with his own personal take on the differences between American and Japanese cultures. When I picked this up, I was initially worried that his approach might be insulting or disrespectful of Japanese culture, but somehow he manages to provide a great many humorous stories, without belittling or demeaning his hosts. Much of the reason for this is that a great deal of the humor here is self-reflective, and the deprecating why he confronts his own inabilities to bridge the cultural gap.
For the most part, this is a fairly predictable Barry product...light and funny, with glimpses of insight buried in the humor. But the real surprise here is the chapter on Hiroshima, where Barry sets aside his humorist cap and provides us with a truly reflective essay about the horrors of the atomic bomb and the consequences of its use. This chapter shows another, more thoughtful, side of Barry, and does him credit.
I read this book while I was travelling myself (in Europe, rather than Japan), and so it provided me with an opportunity to reflect on my own experiences a bit. I didn't feel as completely lost as Barry did, but it is still helpful to reflect on how fundamentally similar we all really are, in spite of the superficial cultural differences.
Here, Barry brings his offbeat way of seeing the world to Japan, and he provides us with his own personal take on the differences between American and Japanese cultures. When I picked this up, I was initially worried that his approach might be insulting or disrespectful of Japanese culture, but somehow he manages to provide a great many humorous stories, without belittling or demeaning his hosts. Much of the reason for this is that a great deal of the humor here is self-reflective, and the deprecating why he confronts his own inabilities to bridge the cultural gap.
For the most part, this is a fairly predictable Barry product...light and funny, with glimpses of insight buried in the humor. But the real surprise here is the chapter on Hiroshima, where Barry sets aside his humorist cap and provides us with a truly reflective essay about the horrors of the atomic bomb and the consequences of its use. This chapter shows another, more thoughtful, side of Barry, and does him credit.
I read this book while I was travelling myself (in Europe, rather than Japan), and so it provided me with an opportunity to reflect on my own experiences a bit. I didn't feel as completely lost as Barry did, but it is still helpful to reflect on how fundamentally similar we all really are, in spite of the superficial cultural differences.
December 30, 2009
I always find Dave Barry funny, but this book was not in my opinion one of his best. He makes no apologies that it isn't a travel guide- but never says what he intends for the book to be. I felt like he didn't really achieve anything. There were several thoughtful and "serious" moments, but they were so quickly stuffed in among jokes that they were out of place. Furthermore, the book wasn't in a linear timeline from his arrival to departure, he just threw in stories from anywhere in his travels to (tenuously) suit his chapter's theme. He states several times that Random House paid for the entire trip, and I hope they felt like they got their money's worth, because I don't think they (or I) did. The only real worth in the entire book was Barry's name on the cover.
The book was funny. I laughed or at least chuckled out loud every dozen pages or so, and his telling of his bumbling Westerner outside approach to Japanese culture I imagine is an accurate one. However at the close, all I really felt like saying was "your point being?"
The book was funny. I laughed or at least chuckled out loud every dozen pages or so, and his telling of his bumbling Westerner outside approach to Japanese culture I imagine is an accurate one. However at the close, all I really felt like saying was "your point being?"
June 3, 2010
Barry gives a somewhat pessimistic view of his adventures in japan, while at the same time he uses his dry sense of humor to make up for it and give the reader a good time. He shows that unlike America, Japan is "an exclusive club" meaning unless you are Japanese (your ethnicity) you will never be considered Japanese. In America if you are of Japanese descent you would still be considered American. With the Japanese it wont ever be like that because of the concentrated number of the same ethnicity that makes up japan. America is considered a melting pot, and for good reason, America has never really been made up of one ethnicity like japan. Even though they don't consider outsiders as Japanese that doesn't mean that there mean or rude to foreigners. With this book it shows the wacky and sometimes weird traditions and culture that come out of japan.
May 1, 2011
Hilarious! I laughed out loud several times per chapter, and at least one of those laughs was an actual roar of laughter. The chapter on Japanese was especially funny as the boyfriend and I recently took a Japanese course, and the chapter on music was quite entertaining as well. Dave writes very amusingly, with plenty of quips to go around for both sides of the culture divide -- he frequently pokes fun at his and his family's perspectives, especially trying to find their train at the train station, or sampling new food, or Dave being thrilled that he is the tallest person in the room most of the time. Worth a read if you've been to Japan (to see if what Dave said in the early 90s still holds true) or if you're interested in a lighthearted look at its culture.
October 7, 2021
Up until now I've always really liked Dave Barry, and this one did have its funny moments, but the narration was just... so horrible. The constant caricature accent a la Mickey Rooney started out cringey and went downhill from there. I could have dealt with it being a little offensive, but this was worse - it was grating and obnoxious and just so unfunny. Besides this, it was about how you'd expect, Dave Barry going to Japan, experiencing culture shock, acting very American, and then mostly just poking fun at his own ignorance. A couple transphobic statements thrown out randomly, nothing particularly clever, an unhealthy obsession with tentacles. Definitely not his best, but probably tolerable in written form.
October 10, 2012
This is, without a doubt, the most accurate depiction of what you'll experience when you visit Japan. After we had been a week in Japan, I handed this book to my husband to read on the shinkansen on the way back from Hiroshima. He about died laughing on that train because it's all TRUE--the bowing, the random tentacles in food, all of it. It's not all laughs, though--the chapter on Hiroshima is contemplative, capturing the feel of visiting the memorial. If you visit Japan, you MUST read this book.
January 29, 2013
I loved this book! First book that I'm giving full marks this year! Laugh out loud funny. Pokes fun at Japan but in a nice way, makes me want to visit even more. We were going to go this year, with Japanese speaking friends(I'd never be brave enough to go with my limited grasp of the language - hello, yes, what and thanks for the food) but we had to move which kinda ruined the plans. Boo! :( Will be checking out more books by Dave Barry because a book hasn't made me laugh like that in a long time.
June 24, 2013
I usually read Dave Barry right before I go to bed because the essays or chapters are quite short. I have discovered this to be a mistake because I can't go to sleep without constantly lapsing into giggles. I do think that Japan has changed alot since Dave Barry has been there, but it doesn't take away from how funny it is. Though Dave spends the entire book being his usual goofy self he does end on a very important note. Another two thumbs up.
August 11, 2019
Dave takes his wife and son to Japan for three works to "understand" their culture, which he knows full well is impossible, but that is what the publishers want. As usual, the result is an hilarious narrative. Japan is WAY more foreign than he thought but he has fun describing their politeness, their strange and horrible food, and their dedication to perfection. He also makes some insightful but cutting observations about the USA, its violence and inability to build good cars.
July 20, 2013
This was an inferior book. Credit where it's due, Barry frequently pointed out that the whole reason he went to Japan was to get a book out of it, and it seems like inspiration was lacking but the contract had already been signed. Also, sometimes his folksy persona started to slip into casual racism. Even if this book was up to his usual humor standards, that would be reason enough to skip it.
March 2, 2017
I promised myself that I would read all the books I own but haven't finished. I couldn't make it through this one. I found the author's utter disdain for another culture nauseating, not funny. This is not how an American should travel abroad, it makes us look bad. It also didn't help that I listened to an audiobook complete with cringeworthy Japanese accents from the narrator.
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